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  • From: Brad Kosiba <bradkosiba AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: Orange County Beekeepers Association <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Missing queen
  • Date: Tue, 8 Mar 2016 20:58:41 -0500

It works almost every time. It did not work for me in a longer term laying worker situation last year. They turned the queen-right hive into laying workers. But this was an unusual situation. I eventually wrestled the combined hive back into line but it was quite a journey.

Brad

Brad

On Mar 8, 2016 6:12 PM, "Randall Austin" <ra41717 AT gmail.com> wrote:
Haywood,

Re: "In an active laying worker situation, would introducing a queen work if I can get one or are they just likely to kill it off. ": The workers will kill any new queen you try to introduce, no question about it.

Re: "I'm leaning toward just taking a frame or two of brood from my other hive and seeing if they will draw out some queen cells from it and hopefully get queen-right": The workers will not draw out queen cells by just transferring a frame or two of brood at one time, for the same reason that they won't accept a new store-bought queen. From their perspective, they have a queen. There is a complicated and resource-intensive way to make this general idea work but it isn't worth the trouble.

Re: "I could also briefly newspaper combine the two hives into one as well and split later": that is the smart move. It works every time. Without question, do that.

Randall Austin





On 3/8/2016 2:30 PM, thrhodes AT hotmail.com wrote:
I checked my three hives at the end of February when we had a couple warm days.  As expected, one hive was completely dead as evidenced by the carnage from robbing out front. One hive looked really good and strong with a good brood pattern and sufficient resources. I flipped the brood box to the bottom and then looked at the third hive.  When I opened up the hive and started looking, I immediately knew something was wrong.  I have what to me looks like a classic laying worker situation.  The "brood" is spotty, all drone in length, no apparent queen cells, no brood pattern characteristic of the good hive, and no queen that I could see.  I took what frames of honey were left in the dead hive and put it in this one.  Perhaps throwing good resources at a lost cause, but then I wasn't sure since I'd never had this happen before.

Just to be sure, I gave it some time and rechecked today.  No change for the better and if anything that laying worker has really kicked it up.  Resources are down, but there are still a good amount of worker bees and some resources left.  

At this point, what's the best option?  In an active laying worker situation, would introducing a queen work if I can get one or are they just likely to kill it off.  I'm leaning toward just taking a frame or two of brood from my other hive and seeing if they will draw out some queen cells from it and hopefully get queen-right.  I could also briefly newspaper combine the two hives into one as well and split later, but if there is any chance I can save it separately, that would be ideal. Thoughts?

Thanks,
Haywood


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